Believe it or not, the United States has had military personnel in Kosovo for longer than it has in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s part of the NATO KFor (Kosovo Force) mission, which began in June 1999.
Currently there are ‘Task Force Valkyrie’ National Guard units from Connecticut and Vermont in Kosovo, but since July they’ve been working a little extra duty fighting wildfires.
KFor video by Staff Sergeant Barbara Pendl, Black Hawk water drops, ground troops fight fires with shovels near Leposavic:
Task Force Valkyrie video (Army National Guard 1-169th Aviation Regiment water drops near Pec) by Sergeant Gloria Kamencik, 31JUL2021:
On 24AUG2021, eighty Washington National Guard personnel were issued wild-land fire fighting gear. They are deploying to assist the Washington State Department of Natural Resources fight the more than 45-thousand acre Summit Trail Fire near Inchelium.
Washington National Guard video by Peter Chang, with interview at the end:
Lightning started the fire on 12JUL2021, as of August 24th it was 45% contained. Evacuation orders have been rescinded.
U.S. Army photo by Specialist Clara Soria-Hernandez.
With all the news media hype about Afghans ‘acquiring’ U.S. made M4s (the latest version of the old M16), where’s the hub-bub about the latest undisclosed amount of M4s openly given away by U.S. forces in Iraq?
USA photo by Specialist Clara Soria-Hernandez.
On 04AUG2021, crates of M4s were handed over to Iraqi airborne troops as part of the Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund (CTEF). It should be noted that ever since Joe Biden was sworn-in as President of the United States, divestitures (as the Department of Defense likes to call them) of U.S. funded vehicles, weapons and other supplies have skyrocketed in Iraq.
USA photo by Specialist Elorina Santos.
The divestments to Iraqi and Kurdish forces usually takes place on Al Asad Air Base, in Iraq. But the warehouse where all the taxpayer funded stuff is stored is located on Camp Arifjan, in Kuwait. The U.S. military calls the stuff stored in the warehouse “high priority equipment” for “partner forces”.
U.S. Army (USA) Combat Capabilities Development Command (DevCom) issued an update on its efforts to create robot combat tanks, revealing that the numbers of robot tanks being tested has tripled.
Robotic Combat Vehicle-Light (RCV-L), Michigan Army National Guard photo by Bruce Huffman.
USA video report by Douglas Halleaux, update on testing at Ground Vehicle Systems Center, Michigan:
RCV converted from a Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. U.S. Army photo by Kimberly Derryberry.
A line of converted RCV M113s & Bradleys, awaiting Phase 1 testing on Fort Carson, Colorado, 2020. USA photo by Jerome Aliotta.
USA video report by Douglas Halleaux, 2019-20 Phase 1 ‘validation’ of RCVs:
HEMTT Iron Dome radar carrier. USA photo by Darrell Ames, 15JUN2021.
Iron Dome radar deployed on the ground. USA photo by Darrell Ames, 15JUN2021.
The launch took place from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
HEMTT Iron Dome control room carrier. USA photo by Darrell Ames, 15JUN2021.
The first unit to be equipped with the Israeli system is based out of Fort Bliss, Texas.
Iron Dome launch, 22JUN2021. USA photo by Darrell Ames.
The U.S. Army plans to buy more of the Iron Dome systems and use them as anti-cruise missile weapons, at least until the U.S. develops a successful system of its own.
Promotional music video, by Darrell Ames, of multiple launches against target drones:
Despite having a high rate of pandemic vaccinations, the U.S. state of Oregon has deployed its National Guard, the governor admitting that vaccines don’t work against Delta: “I know this is not the summer many of us envisioned with over 2.5-million Oregonians vaccinated against Covid-19. The harsh and frustrating reality is that the Delta variant has changed everything.”-Kate Brown, Governor of Oregon
On 13AUG2021, the governor of Oregon announced she was deploying as many as 1-thousand-5-hundred taxpayer funded militia personnel to support at least 20 hospitals across the state, blaming it on skyrocketing Delta Pandemic infections filling-up hospitals, and the supposed pandemic inspired labor shortage.
Oregon Army National Guard photo by Major Wayne Clyne.
Oregon Army National Guard personnel listen to briefing by employee of non-profit Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, in Medford, 20AUG2021.
Video from Major Wayne Clyne, Oregon Army National Guard, in which you can hear a hospital staffer tell National Guard personnel that the situation is like a “sitcom” (television situation comedy), 20AUG2021:
OANG photo by Major Wayne Clyne.
Oregon Army National Guard personnel man the desk at non-profit CHI Mercy Health, in Roseburg, 21AUG2021.
“Our joint forces go where FEMA needs us, and where the Department of Defense orders us to go. This is a whole-of-government response, and right now FEMA has determined the military’s unique, surge capabilities are most needed in these two states.”-Lieutenant General Laura J. Richardson, U.S. Army North
Over the weekend of 21-22 August 2021, twenty Air Force medical personnel deployed to University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, while 20 Army medics deployed to North Mississippi Medical Center-Tupelo, Mississippi.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Michael H. Lehman, 22AUG2021.
20 Air Force personnel also deployed to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Lafayette General Medical Center, USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Michael H. Lehman, 21AUG2021.
The U.S. Navy deployed 20 medics to Lafayette, Louisiana.
It should be noted that it is the first time Department of Defense medical assets have deployed to Mississippi because of the pandemic. Military medics were deployed to Louisiana in 2020.
“Idaho National Lab has access to training aids for radiological scenarios, safety staff and training facilities for the scenarios we presented to the students. We worked in radiologically contaminated environments and in high radiation fields.”-Captain Daniel W. Arguello, 1st Area Medical Laboratory, 44th Medical Brigade, 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (CBRNE) Command, U.S. Army
Due to the decades of radiation contamination on the INL site, it has become the logical choice for training military personnel on how to deal with radiation contamination environments: “The focus of the training is to train Army and sister service personnel to respond to accidents and incidents involving radiation or radioactive materials, conduct radioactive source recovery operations and provide radiological site assessments of areas suspected to be contaminated with radioactive material.”-First Lieutenant Joshua D. Salazar, 1st Area Medical Laboratory, 44th Medical Brigade, 20th CBRNE Command, U.S. Army
In the middle of August, 2021, the annual Radiological Hazards Operations Course (known to FEMA as a HOT [Hands On Training] Course) was taught by the U.S. Army’s First Lieutenant Joshua D. Salazar and Captain Daniel W. Arguello. They are with the 20th CBRNE Command, which is headquartered on Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The training is a way of preparing for future warfare: “Through this course, these outstanding health physicists are helping to keep our military ready to fight and win in an all hazards environment.”-Colonel Matt Grieser, 1st Area Medical Laboratory, 44th Medical Brigade, 20th CBRNE Command, U.S. Army
Amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24) departs Naval Station Norfolk, 17AUG2021. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Jacob Milham.
On 17AUG2021, the USS Arlington shipped-out for Haiti, a Caribbean country known for catastrophic earthquakes.
Inside the Arlington are hundreds of personnel and landing craft loaded with amphibious LARC trucks. USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Jack D. Aistrup.
The deployment of the USS Arlington is just one of many military emergency responses by the United States, since August 14th.
Arlington also carries MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters. USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class John Bellino.
U.S. Southern Command photo by Sergeant First Class Victor Aguirre.
On 17AUG2021, U.S. Joint Task Force Haiti (created on 15AUG2021 in response to the Haitian quakes on 14AUG2021) and Special Operations Command personnel board a C-130J bound for Haiti, out of Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida.
U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Third Class Erik Villa Rodriguez.
16AUG2021 over Les Cays, Haiti, you can see a USCG helicopter and a Chilean KC-135 on the airport grounds, part of the massive global response to the catastrophe.
USCG video by Petty Officer Third Class Erik Villa Rodriguez, 15AUG2021:
USCG photo.
On 15AUG2021, the day after the quakes, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) HC-144 Ocean Sentries (Airbus CN-235) deployed from Air Station Miami, Florida.
U.S. Southern Command photo.
Also on the 15th of August on Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida, U.S. Air Force Reserve C-130J Super Hercules were loaded with supplies from USAID bound for Haiti.
USCG video by Lieutenant David Steele, 15AUG2021:
U.S. Air Force photo by Captain Annabel Monroe.
U.S. Army Joint Task Force-Bravo CH-47 Chinook helicopters take-off from Cayman Islands for the Haiti disaster response, 15AUG2021.
USAF photo by Captain Annabel Monroe.
U.S. Army Joint Task Force-Bravo Black Hawk helicopters deployed from Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, for disaster response operations in Haiti, 15AUG2021. U.S. Air Force Special Tactics personnel also deployed from Honduras.
“The fire was moving at 20-25 mph; the fire traveled a mile and a half in 20 minutes to jump into ‘our’ property. With the pasture field grass that we have out here, that’s how fast it can move. The fire was eating up ground, all we can do was carrel it and defend it from jumping on county land, basically keep it on Army land.”– Steven Coloma, Pōhakuloa Training Area (PTA) Fire and Emergency Services
From July 30th to August 4th, 2021, the Waimea wildfire grew to become the largest in Hawaii’s modern history. Hawaii’s Army National Guard, and the U.S. Army’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB), joined the fight.
U.S. Army photo, 31JULY2021.
25th CAB used their CH-47 and HH-60 helicopters:“…the priority was some threatened and endangered species that reside on PTA. Once we got that initial assessment from the PTA firefighters, we started hitting the areas around the threatened and endangered species. That was PTA garrison commander’s number one priority—fire management on federal land, and ensure we saved the threatened and endangered species.”-Major Lee Jones, 3rd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment
USA photo, 31JULY2021.
Armed with Bambi buckets, the Chinook and Black Hawk ‘copters made 268 drops on the fire, more than 169-thousand gallons of water. The Waimea wildfire burned at least 40-thousand acres (16187 hectares).
